Anthropology Program organized the 6th Annual International Anthropology Conference

May 19, 2015

On 15^th May 2015, the Anthropology Program organized the 6th Annual International Anthropology Conference "Great Game(s) in Central Asia and Beyond: Exploring International Regional Rivalry Using Cultural and Historical Lenses". The conference has invited participants to explore the historical and contemporary geopolitics in Central Asia.

In 1990, when the USSR was on the brink of collapse, British writer and journalist Peter Hopkirk published his essay ‘The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia’. With his interpretation, the historical term “Great Game” gained a new meaning and has been used extensively to describe the post-Soviet geopolitical developments and international rivalry in the region. Today, the geographical relevance of the term can be extended beyond Central Asia, referring to wars, local conflicts and human tragedies in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and parts of Asia and Africa.

Central Asian outstanding scholars from the19th century, like Sven Hedin, Aurel Stein, Nikolai  Prjevalski and Max Muller, contributed greatly to the understanding of the original Great Game. Their written legacy remains an important part of oriental studies in the U.S., Europe and Russia. But today, where is the voice of local and international scholars in the academic and public discourse on these complex geopolitical processes? What do contemporary scholars have to offer to the understanding of the new Great Game in reducing the impacts of conflicts, injustice and violence?

The purpose of this conference was to explore the concept of regional geopolitical rivalry using cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural lenses and diverse ethnographic and historical sources beyond the scope of traditional political sciences.

The key note speaker, Alexander Cooley, Professor of Political Science at Barnard College and the Deputy Director for Social Sciences Programming at the Harriman Institute at Columbia Universit, is the author of several academic books: Great Games, Local Rules: The New Great Power Contest for Central Asia (Oxford 2012), Logics of Hierarchy: The Organization of Empires, States and Military Occupations (Cornell 2005), Base Politics: Democratic Change and the US Military Overseas (Cornell 2008) and Contracting States: Sovereign Transfers in International Relations (Princeton 2009), co-authored with Hendrik Spruyt of Northwestern University.

The conference brought together scholars from different continents in order to discuss these important issues.

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